Death and the Modern Pagan

Even though they may look forward to an afterlife in heaven, many people traditionally view death with fear and distaste. Death is sometimes seen as a tool of the devil, or as a force sent by God to punish sinners. Hurricanes, earthquakes, and others natural disasters are sometimes called "Acts of God", as if God had nothing better to do than sit up in heaven conjuring up disasters to punish unbelievers.

Part of this fear of death comes from the belief that we have only one life to live, and death is really the end. Mixed in with this fear is a large amount of uncertainty. When someone dies, how can they really tell where they will go? In this article, I will attempt to explore the alternate perception of death held by many modern Wiccans and Neopagans.

Gods of the Gateway

The Earth-Based, Goddess-Centered Pagan traditions, including Wicca, have a very different attitude toward death in general. Most of the Pagans I have spoken to over the years believe in reincarnation in some form, so that death is seen as a change, a "shedding of the skin", rather than the end. For this reason the snake that sheds its skin is viewed as a symbol of rebirth rather than as a symbol of evil. Pagans see life and death as two sides of one coin; one leads into the other, unendingly.

Deities of birth and sexual passion are often associated with death as well, because death is the gateway into another life. Nothing is permanent, and at the end of suffering there comes peace, rest, and the opportunity to start over again. Many Wiccan traditions believe that the souls of the dead rest for a while in an Otherworld called the "Summerland" where they are healed of the traumas of their last life before being born again.

Pagans also tend to see the natural world as a system that was set up in the beginning (or evolved, depending on your view) to function a particular way. We are part of that system, but not the rulers of it, nor does it single us out for special attention. The Earth is a dynamic unit, every function is important to all living creatures.

When Earthquakes happen, the movement of the tectonic plates helps to maintain a temperature that can sustain life on the planet. Sometimes cities are destroyed in the process, sometimes the quakes will happen in a completely uninhabited region like Antarctica. It's not personal. Those who are killed are comforted in the arms of the Goddess and given another chance next time. Diseases occur because the process of evolution created many types of diverse life, and some of those types of life are harmful to others. Again, it's not personal.

Creation, movement, and the ongoing process of change leads to both death and new opportunities for life. When forest fires occurs, new plants and trees have the opportunity to grow. In Hindu mythology, Shiva the Destroyer dances on the burning ground before coming together in Sacred Union with the Goddess to create anew.

Ancient mythology and religion is filled with literally thousands of deities that combine both creation and destruction within their aspects. In Wiccan theology, the Goddess is triple in form, appearing as either the Maiden, the Mother, or the Crone. The young maiden who symbolizes new life and potential, the Mother who gives birth to all, and the Crone who cuts the thread of life and scythes down old growth are all aspects of the same being.

Likewise, the God can appear as the Green Man, symbolizing new growth, the Lord of the Animals, wild and sexual, and the Dark God or Sage, the Lord of Winter who carries the dead through the gateway. In some mythologies, he takes on the even more fearsome aspects of Lord of the Wild Hunt, the one who hunts down and carries off souls who may not be willing to move on to their new lives voluntarily.

The ancient Irish even portrayed a figure, the Sheila-Na-Gig, which combined death and sexuality together in one being. The Sheila-Na-Gig commonly appeared as a withered crone spreading her legs and displaying her sexual parts, a shocking figure to modern sensibilities. The Sheila-Na-Gig was considered a powerful protective symbol, and was carved on doors to ward off evil. This symbol was so important to the Irish that they were reluctant to give it up with the advent of Christianity, and Sheila-Na-Gigs have even been found on the doors and walls of old Irish churches!

Hecate, the three-faced Goddess of the crossroads, is said in one ancient Greek invocation to be "strong to shatter every stubborn thing". Deities who are strongly associated with death are also deities of change and transformation, another manifestation of rebirth. Death is the greatest transformation, but there are also transformations that occur within life that are equally terrifying.

Wiccans and other Pagans do not avoid these energies, but invoke them and work with them carefully and respectfully. The "Stubborn things" that the Goddess shatters are often personal illusions. It is when you avoid dealing with these illusions that you begin to have problems: self-denial, addictions, interpersonal problems, and lack of motivation. Change is essential to the process of continued growth.

The Last Sacred Space

Just as we do rituals to celebrate life, Pagans also hold rituals to honor the dead and the aspects of the divine that deal with death. On October 31st, we celebrate Samhain (pronounced Sow-in or Saw-wain), the Celtic New Year. At this time, we gather to honor our ancestors and other Beloved Dead. Many Pagan traditions prepare a special feast for the dead and invite them to come back and eat with us, a practice very similar to the Day of The Dead as it is still celebrated in Mexico.

We recite the names of the dead and talk about their lives, their deaths, and the way we felt about them. Many Pagans act as if the dead were literally present and talk to them directly, perhaps also taking the opportunity to tell them things that we did not have the opportunity to say while they were alive.

At this time, we also recognize that the old year and the summer have died, and the older, darker aspects of the God and Goddess now reign. We welcome these essential, sometimes frightening beings and acknowledge their ascent into power for the duration of the winter months. We dance with the deities and the dead, feast with them, and wait to receive any visions or insights that they may bring with them.

With their radically different view of death, it is not surprising that Pagans often deal with literal death in their own unique way. In the Pagan community, as in many other communities in recent years, there have been deaths from cancer, AIDS, and other incurable illnesses. Rather than trying to avoid being around sickness and death, Pagans often gather in hospitals and hospices to surround the dying person with love and support, even to the extent of sometimes irritating the medical staff who wants only "Immediate family members".

Efforts are often made to remove a hopelessly terminal person from the hospital to a home environment where they will be allowed to have all the visitors they want and perform their own death and transition rituals without interference from outsiders. If this is not possible, efforts are made to carry out the dying Pagan's wishes even in a medical setting. I personally know of several people who literally died in Sacred Space created surreptitiously in the sterile hospital environment by their supporters, who made every effort to stay with them up to the very end.

The dying person is touched, sung to, talked to, and allowed to discuss their fears and feelings about their passing. This is radically different from the way in which most modern Americans die, and is probably a lot closer to the way our ancestors dealt with death. Even in the last century, people commonly died at home surrounded by their extended families.

At some point in the last hundred years, attitudes shifted. Death became a taboo subject, a distasteful thing to be avoided and left in the hands of medical personal, much to the detriment of those who were actually going though the death process. Though people today usually do not have large extended families to offer support, the Pagan community has tried to recapture that sense of compassionate involvement by creating an extended family of our own.

This voluntary involvement in the death process can even extend to pets, and I have known of many Pagans, myself included, who had to make the painful decision to euthanize a suffering, gravely ill pet. Instead of leaving the room and letting the vet take care of the "distasteful" process, Pagans will commonly insist on being present during euthanasia to comfort the pet and ease its passing, often holding it in our laps during the actual death.

We may do a silent ritual to assist the dying pet, creating Sacred Space and invoking deities associated with particular animals (Hecate, the "Mistress of Hounds" for a dog, or Bast, the Egyptian Cat Goddess, for a cat.) Seeing the suffering actually end brings closure to the human, and the presence and support of a loved human calms and soothes the animal, giving it a "Good death" rather than a cold, impersonal one.

Ashes and Wailing

When death, human or animal, actually does occur, I have noticed some observable differences in the way Pagans deal with their feelings. In the novel Catmagic, Jonathan Barry and Whitley Strieber erroneously claimed that "When a Witch chooses death, the whole covenstead celebrates". Though we accept death as a sacred part of the life process and even welcome it when it is appropriate, I have never seen anyone rejoicing at the death of a loved one.

While we may be relieved that suffering has ended and are not worried about punishment in the afterlife, the deceased person is definitely missed and mourned for a time. Most of the Pagans I have known have generally been more comfortable and open about expressing their feelings than most of the general population, even the "negative" feelings like grief or rage that may surface after as intense an event as a death.

When one very well-loved Pagan Bard died in the 1980's, his funeral was attended by both his family and the extended Pagan community. From what I have heard, the Pagans sat on one side of the church and the family on the other in a somewhat uncomfortable truce. It was the Pagan contingent that did most of the crying, wailing, and heartfelt grieving, to the visible discomfort of the more composed and stoic family.

There are reasons for these actions. I believe that this intense, cathartic expression allows us to purge our feelings more quickly than someone who "holds them in", and then move on more calmly to a place of release and acceptance.

This funeral was also an example of an unfortunate legal oversight on the part of the deceased Bard, who had often said during his life that he wanted a Pagan funeral, and to be buried on Sacred Pagan land. When he was killed unexpectedly in a car accident, his family seized the body and insisted on dressing him in a suit rather than his Bardic robes, and performing a Christian funeral.

He had left no Will to state his wishes in this matter, and there was nothing his Pagan friends could do. Many Pagans took heed of this incident, and are much more careful now to leave legal documents with instructions on funeral arrangements.

At the present time, there are no Pagan cemeteries or Memorial Parks. Though we hope that this will eventually change, at the current time the presence of such a facility would probably invoke feelings of discomfort or possibly even protest from our Non-Pagan neighbors, who do not really understand our beliefs and practices. Because Pagan groups do not generally tithe or collect dues, we also lack the monetary assets to back such an undertaking.

As a result of this lack of formal, established Memorial sites, most Pagans currently opt for cremation rather than burial. Some Pagan groups chose to keep the ashes close by in a shrine or on a memorial altar, others choose to scatter the ashes in some designated setting depending on the wishes of the deceased. The act of scattering the ashes often helps the survivors to feel the finality of release. As the ashes fly off on the wind, you can imagine the soul of the deceased flying into the next world.

After someone has died, we often perform a ritual called a "Soul Release" to bid them farewell and help them go through the gateway into the Otherworld. This is particularly important when someone has died an unexpected or violent death - we believe that in such circumstances the soul may be confused and need some extra assistance.

After we sense that the spirit has departed, we try to compose ourselves to go on with life, but the deceased person is still very much a part of our community in spirit. It seems the dead sometimes become "Guardian spirits" of the particular group or tradition they belonged to in life, and some of us believe that they may come back to us in dreams to give advice or warnings. At the very least, they are never truly forgotten, and are welcome back to feast with us every Samhain.

Sometimes we notice that a particular soul will stop coming back in dreams and does not seem to be present at the feast at Samhain. We hope that their absence in an indication that they have been born again, and see this as a cause for rejoicing.

THE PERSECUTlON of WOMEN AS WITCHES

Women were revered as Earth Mother figures in ancient times. In Greece which was considered the intellectual civilization of the world at that time, crucial political decisions were made by consulting the simple peasant girls who were Apollo's oracles at Delphi.

It was the Judea-Christian culture that severely altered women's place in the scheme of things. In the book of Genesis, Eve was given the blame for man's fall and her legacy was written:
"Unto the woman, I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy travail, in pain thou shall bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." Woman was given the menstrual cycle and the agony of childbirth, but these did not compromise her full punishment. Patriarchy was the other half of that ancient curse, and the Christian civilization continued with the highly developed Jewish tradition of misogyny and sexual repression.

The Bible set sex out as the source of knowledge, civilization and death. For the sin of Eden, Adam must go to work and Eve must bear children. Thus, the human family and work-ethic sprung up from roots of sexual repression and guilt.

The Catholic Church has maintained an objection to abortion, thus continuing the ancient biblical curse which made childbearing a painful punishment for that original sin in the Garden of Eden. The church has retained this historical dimension of the myth of feminine evil.

By the Middle Ages men's earlier awe of woman altered from the point of viewing her as the personification of Mother Nature to that of viewing her as an avaricious and wicked soul. The fact that women produced living humans from their bodies was supernatural itself.

Women were then even blamed for storms and droughts. Men feared that women might gain power, so they dominated them with brute strength and used them as scapegoats. Joan of Arc was tried for heresy, but political power was the real issue involved.

The Judea-Christian concept of women as the original criminal has resulted in the slaughter of millions of people in a period of three hundred years. Since the late 1400's it has been estimated that at least nine million people have been executed for the sin of witchcraft. The majority of these victims have been women, for witchcraft seems to have been a female crime. Men were generally protected from such accusations because they were considered to be of superior intellect and virtue in both the Judean and Christian cultures.

Little is known about these women who were murdered, for the historians were male and felt that the massacre of witches was too unimportant to chronicle, except as mere footnotes. Three centuries of burning women at the stake in agony was passed over lightly, the genocide ignored because of an acceptance of the Bible's proclamation that females were evil.

Some of these witches were labeled poisoners, for they used drugs like aconite, amanita, hashish, laudanum, belladonna and organic amphetamines. Forgotten were their pioneer development of analgesics and medical treatments using herbs. During these trials, what women said in their own defense was ignored because the only records were written by their enemies-- men. The trials became a way of disposing of unwanted women, those that were old, different and non-conforming. In A Room Of One's Own, Virginia Woolf wrote:
"When one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs, or even of a very remarkable man who had a mother, then I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet or some Emily Bronte who dashed her brains out on the moor crazed with the torment that her gift had given her."

Perhaps we can better understand this phenomenon if we zero in on the witch trials of Massachusetts in the 1690's, even though the number executed there was microscopic compared to the millions put to death in England and on the European continent during the late Middle Ages. We have accurate records from Salem and the statistics show that more women than men were persecuted as witches. Of the 141 accused, 104 were women, of the 31 people convicted, 25 were women, and of the 20 executed, 14 were women.

We should look first at the young girls involved in these trials, for in Salem during the late 1600's young girls were ignored for the most part. Their spirits were as repressed by the society in which they lived as their legs were restricted by the long gowns that they were forced to wear. The Puritan Church hammered away at them with lusty tales of the Devil, continually painting him as the arch-criminal. He was the everlasting antagonist and proved to be a fascination in this never-ending detective story of crime.

When winter closed in on Salem Village, females were shut off from all outside activities. In contrast, men were relieved now from the heavier, chores and they could take their muskets into the forest and shoot deer, wild turkey, or a marauding fox or wolf. They could fetch a line, cut through the ice and fish or they could turn to odd jobs of carpentry or other secondary trades.

There were no diversions for females in winter time though, and they rarely got out of the house except to go to church. In summer they could pick berries or carry beer to the men working in the fields, but with the snow came the monotonous round of chores without any outlet for physical activity or childish mischief.

It was Tituba, the half-savage slave from Barbados who entertained these young girls during these winter months. She showed them tricks, spells, and fragments of Voodoo that she remembered from her own childhood. She told them tales, murmured nonsense rhymes, and gave these girls more attention than their own kinfolk.

Many theories have been offered for the young girls' possession in Salem. The most popular thesis has been that they were afflicted with hysteria due to the stress and repression in their lives, and that they used these fits to avail themselves of an opportunity to rebel against the restrictions placed upon them by the pious adult society in which they lived. Some psychologists have felt that some of these girls had paranoid tendencies which were hereditary. Linda Caporael, a graduate student in psychology at the University of California at Santa Barbara theorizes that the girls' madness was due to a fungus in grain rye called "ergot," which contains a hallucinogenic similar to LSD. Ergot could have caused the convulsions, mental disturbances and perceptual distortions. But for lack of a better explanation of the phenomena, the New England Puritans seized upon witchcraft. One of the bewitched girls, twelve-year-old Ann Putnam lived on a farm in the swampy part of Salem, where her father raised grain which proved to be contaminated. Her mother and two other girls living on the farm were similarly afflicted. Further evidence of ergot poisoning offered by Linda Caparael was the language used by these accusers pointing out the witches. Their claims of biting, pinching and pricking by pins could allude to a crawling and tingling sensation usually experienced by ergot victims.

There have been other theories for the girls' strange behavior. A Tory governor claimed the afflicted girls were an early case of mob action. George Beard, the inventor of the electric chair claimed that the girls were in touch with spirits.

It has been suggested by others that Tituba, who was an expert in herbs might have induced the girls to experiment with the jimson weed, and their bedevilment might actually have been drug highs similar to the LSD trips experienced today.

If this was true, Tituba's motives are uncertain, but there are some who feel that she might have done this in vengeance for having been torn away from the warm Barbados Islands and her black kinsmen and brought to the harsh northern landscape to live among rigid unsympathetic aliens who worked her exceedingly hard for long hours.

Whatever the cause of the girls' hysterical fits, the fact remained that it was the poor and disabled who were imprisoned and hanged. There was no such thing as a democracy among witches. The rich and well-connected people accused by the girls were able to flee New England and the judges ignored the extradition laws.

In researching these trials, it becomes obvious that the accusations became a vehicle that enabled the community to rid themselves of the old, sick and other undesirable women in their midst.

Sarah Good was disliked by the community because she smoked a pipe and tramped around the area begging for food. When the magistrate asked Sarah why she did not attend church services like the other women, she snapped, "For want of cloose." At the time of her conviction, she was carrying another child. She gave birth in prison, but no one bothered to record the event. After Sarah's arrest, her five-year-old daughter, Dorcas, ran around the countryside like a mad dog, biting the girls for what they had done to her mother. A warrant was duly sworn out for her, as it was obvious that she too was a witch, so off to prison she went. They did not hang five-year-old witches, but Dorcas never recovered from her imprisonment. Shut off from the sun and cooped up with aging women in all degrees of piety, iniquity, imbecility and intelligence, her face became pinched and sullen and her hair became wild and matted. When she came out of prison, history records that she was never "hale and well-looking again." We are left to guess at her mental state.

Along with young Dorcas, others of a tender age were tried and convicted of witchcraft. These included Sarah Carrier, age eight; Abigail Johnson, who was age eleven and her brother, Stephen, who was thirteen-years-old.

Bridget Bishop was a flashy dresser who sometimes wore a "red paragon bodice" for best and she also owned a great store of laces. She was a tavern-keeper who sometimes allowed young people to loiter at unseemingly hours playing at "shovelboard." William Stacy, a neighbor testified in her behalf, stating that he had once admired her, for when he was twenty-two, she had been kind and visited him when he had smallpox. We can only guess at what Bridget herself said and did in court, because Stephen Sewall, the recorder took no pains to write her words down.

Martha Carrier's sin was having pockmarked children. When she refused to confess to the crime of witchcraft, her two oldest boys were tied heels to heels, but the blood came out of their mouths before they would testify against their mother. Eventually under torture, they admitted that they were witches, too, and that their mother had made them so. At this point the youngest child without much persuasion declared that her mother was a black cat. When asked how she knew, she replied, "The cat said so." Sarah Osburne was scandalously remiss in her church attendance. The fact that she was ill and not fit to be out of bed made little impact upon the court. The constables had to support her during her trial, and she was put upon a nag and ridden to Ipswich prison. The fetid air, cold floors and meager food extracted their toll. She grew weaker each day until she died on May 10th.

Martha Cory proclaimed to the court: "I do not believe in witches!" The court asked her how she could make such a statement when three proven witches had already been taken in their parish. She continued to deny the reality of witchcraft to the end.

Rebecca Nurse was guilty of the crime of being partially deaf. At the time of her accusation she had been infirmed with a stomach complaint and had not left her house for nine days. Rebecca was a well-loved grandmother in her community, but she had grown too hard of hearing to understand a crucial question from the jurors. "Oh Lord, help me!," she cried out in court and spread her hands out helplessly. Her gesture was immediately imitated by the girls, who then proceeded to duplicate every move that Rebecca made. Those in the courtroom started to weep for the afflicted girls. Rebecca did not. This was interpreted by Judge Hawthorne as obvious guilt, for would not an innocent woman weep like other women? But tears are not possible for witches. After her conviction, though Rebecca was unable to walk, she was carried from Salem prison in a chair to the church, where she was excommunicated --sent not only to the gallows, but doomed also to eternal damnation. Rebecca collapsed from the ordeal and had to be carried back to prison. Shortly afterwards her sister, Sarah Cloyce, was also sentenced to prison.

The courts were convinced that the convicted witches were still working their witchcraft upon the poor girls, so the authorities ordered that chains be put upon those in prison to circumvent their activities. The expense of these chains was charged to the accounts of the witches.

Life was wretched for those convicted and imprisoned. They were confined to foul overcrowded cells, forced to wear heavy chains upon their limbs, and suffer further indignities by having prison officials sweep down upon them periodically to search their bodies for witch marks.

After the trials had ended, those who had been convicted of witchcraft were not released until their families paid their prison fees. Unfortunately, not every accused witch had kinsmen willing to mortgage their farms. No one was interested in restoring old Sarah Doston to circulation, so she remained in prison until she died.

Abigail Faulkner and Elizabeth Proctor had been condemned to death, but were reprieved until their expected babies could be born. Both women left prison with their jail-born infants in their arms.

Tituba, the slave had no one to pay her prison fees, so she was sold back into slavery and sent south, never to be heard of again.

Noyes Parris, the son of the witch-hunting parson became a victim of the times also and grew up only to die insane.

History had an annoying way of failing to record complete data. The girls involved were never allowed to tell the truth and with the passage of time, the truth became much too complex.

The Hardest Lessons

HARDEST LESSONS OF THE OLD RELIGION

Witch's Note: A High Priestess Alastriona found these Lessons seven years ago and used these to create and promote peace and harmony in her Coven. I do not know if these lessons are 'Official' or widely used, but I do believe that these Lessons need to be more encouraged. And I am hoping that these Lessons will help bring peace and harmony to many others too.

(1) Be As Sensitive To The Needs Of The Other And As Willing To help As A Newlywed (Be Excellent To Each Other)

(2) Prepare For Being The Compliment One To Another As A Oneness Of Service In A Constructive Manner Ever (Let Not Either Be A Drain On The Other)

(3) As Helpmates, Be Forgiving, Find The Good; One That Enableth Another To Help Her/Himself Has Gained More Than One That Taketh A City

(4) Do Not Block The Development Of The Other

(5) Aid To Others Brings Release, Peace, And Harmony

(6) One Will Never Find Harmony By Finding Fault With What The Other Does

(7) Work Toward Oneness Of Purpose And Spirituality In A Complimentary Manner To Achieve And Maintain Wholeness

(8) One Cannot Change Or Improve Anyone But Their Self

(9) One Can Only Change Their Attitude About The Other

(10) Unconditional Love
( Before One Can Accept Others, One Must Accept Their Self. Accepting That Others Are On Their Appropriate Paths And That They Are Right For Who They Are. We Must Learn To Accept And Tolerate Others As Being A Part Of One's Self)

Be: Cheerful, Forgiving, Helpful, Hopeful, Supportive, Optimistic

Shun: Criticism, Condemnation, Complaint

Use: Encouragement, Gentleness, Kindness, Love, Patience, Tolerance

The Witches Creed

Hear now the word of the Witches,
the secrets we hid in the night,
When dark was our destinys pathway,
That now we bring forth in the light.
Mysterious Water and Fire,
The Earth and the wide-ranging Air,
By hidden Quintessence we know Them,
and we will keep silent and dare.
The birth and rebirth of all Nature,
the passing of Winter and Spring,
We share with the life Universal,
rejoice in the Magical Ring
Four times in the year the Great Sabbat,
returns, and the Witches are seen,
At Lammas and Candelas dancing,
on May Eve and old Halloween
When daytime and nighttime are equal,
when sun is at greatest and least,
The four lesser Sabbats are summoned,
again Witches gather in feast.
Thirteen silver moons in a year are,
thirteen is the Covens array,
Thirteen times at Esbat make merry,
for each golden year and a day.
The power has passed down the ages,
each time between woman and man
Each century unto the other,
ere times and the ages began.
When drawn is the Magickal circle,
by sword or athame of power,
the compass between two worlds lies,
in the land of shades of that hour.
Our world has no right to know it,
and the world beyond will tell naught,
The oldest of Gods are invoked there,
the great work of Magic is wrought.
For two are the mystical pillars,
that stand at the gate of the shrine,
And two are the powers of Nature,
the forms and the forces divine.
And do what thou wilt be the challenge,
so be it in love that harms none,
For this is the only commandment,
By Magick of old be it done.
Eight words the Witches Rede fulfill:
If it Harms none, Do what Thou Will!